A Continued Assessment of the Risk of Migration of Hydrocarbons or Fracturing Fluids into Fresh Water Aquifers in the Piceance, Raton, and San Juan Basins of Colorado

Stone, C. H.; Eustes, A. W.; Fleckenstein, W. W.

doi:10.2118/181680-ms

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…In many cases, surface casing length was not sufficient to protect the deepest drinking water aquifer in the region. The majority of newer unconventional wells in the Wattenberg Field are built with surface casings that exceed regulatory standards (Stone, Eustes, & Fleckenstein, 2016), which reduces the risk of SfCP-induced gas migration, and are often cemented above the bottom of the surface casing, which removes the possibility of SfCP-induced gas migration all together (Lackey et al, 2017).…”

Section: Anthropogenically Induced Pathways Of Methane Migrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Groundwater‐quality hazards of methane leakage from hydrocarbon wells: A review of observational and numerical studies and four testable hypotheses

et al. 2018

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Methane leakage from hydrocarbon wells plays an important role in the groundwater‐quality impacts of hydrocarbon development and presents a more likely hazard than hydraulic fracturing or formation fluids. Methane released from contaminated water wells has been linked with combustion risks and degraded water quality. Potentially, methane can serve as a precursor to other fluids associated with hydrocarbon extraction, such as volatile organics. In this review, we surveyed studies relating to contamination of drinking‐water aquifers by methane gas from leaking hydrocarbon wells. Challenges associated with linking methane in groundwater to hydrocarbon extraction are identified, highlighting the need for groundwater‐quality and well‐integrity databases. Science‐based policy recommendations are made, including deeper surface casings and greater cement coverage for wells with deviated wellbores, remediation of faulty abandoned wells, and increased gas‐migration monitoring. We suggest four hypotheses to quantify risks to groundwater quality from methane leakage. First, differentiation between thermogenic methane occurring in groundwater due to natural migration and thermogenic methane present due to hydrocarbon development can be used to alleviate the need for baseline measurements of methane in groundwater. Second, methane newly discovered in freshwater aquifers is unlikely to have originated from leaks beginning decades ago. Third, pertaining to the zone separating methane leakage from groundwater, relative permeability will have a larger impact on plume diameter than heterogeneity in intrinsic permeability. Fourth, thermogenic methane in groundwater will serve as a precursor to benzene, toluene, ethybenzene, and xylene (BTEX) under conditions where methane and BTEX coexist in a hydrocarbon reservoir and leakage is transported primarily in the aqueous phase. This article is categorized under: Engineering Water > Sustainable Engineering of Water Science of Water > Water Quality

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Section: Anthropogenically Induced Pathways Of Methane Migrationmentioning

confidence: 99%